"From the heavens, she came, atop a steed of Thurnmouric-making. To plead for the life of her mother did she come, screaming to the sky with all her heart, Lightning." I ponder as my strongside index rubs the stone-imitating metal as if it is parchment. The sounds of adoration and worship whistling in most joyously through the bars of my cell and the window baring my back to the cold of night. Heel click, metal on metal and much noise is made on the slow way out for many others. Their eyes still in disbelief.
I look up, that which spawned my greatest fears standing above me with all the grace expected of her. Though, she is shaken by the suddenness of it all. The Thunder-Shoguns gathered so instantly around her newly made palace, even His Imperial Majesty and the whole royal family have made the trip to my knowledge. Curious, it is, here I am locked away for what must be months now and although I am separated from my resources and family, I still know of the world outside.
"Laiologos Burspharosa." the once Lady-Heir greets with a modest bow. Looking up at her, I tilt my head, uncertain of if I should bow back given what was so quick to happen to me after her holy call. I rise regardless, taking hold of my rags and I bow as if I am not shamed with stripped participation in the Senate and that my lordship is not within question. I did my duty for her sake, not that she knows yet and she was quick to step aside as the calls against The Lady Bosphama were dropped.
Senator Caetusi, I am failing your memory...
"I am not clear on what it is I need to call you... My Thunderess?" I start to say, looking out to the rumbling sky for some crude inspiration. She smiles like a child, eager to hide her face from me, the disbelief too strong.
"That is what they have taken to calling me, yes. They think I am related to the ancient hero Thunder now, but, I know I am not. I do not think he'd appreciate me taking that." she explains and I nod on my way back into my kneeling position on my tatty strip of old towel.
"Did he strike you as the prideful type?" I ask, curious as to how the legendary hero is as a person. Or, was, that tapestry-esque art I saw in the palace before I gazed my eyes truly upon the Thunderess' beauty ended in a peculiar manner. I suppose one had to have been there to truly understand it and I can only envy the former Lady-Heir and her foreign companion.
He lives up to the name of his people, so the rumours have come to me as. The thunder-shoguns have been praying death-centric hymns for a period that I was unfortunate enough to miss mostly. Some degree of a primary source exists within my mind, but, one of my least concerning causes for bitterness is that. I haven't had the time to really think about it even with thinking being all that I can do.
"Why are you so filthy? Is the wealth you command a myth?"
"I have denied all efforts and sent off any who would ask me the question regarding my comfort." I answer, fine with going by her dictations in the conversation. I would be a fool to try and domineer anything as I am now, where I am now, as she is now. A beggar is before a goddess but he does not deserve to pray for a boon, only her mercy can give it. Though, I will meet it with a sharp backhand and the bowl shall scatter it and its contents across the temple marble.
"I don't understand. You are one of the greatest lords in all of the land and you cannot muster it within yourself to give yourself a proper bed? Warm food and a floor that doesn't risk cutting you?" she questions, yet, I have reasons to doubt her care for how I live my life right now. She has achieved her goals, I am bowing and broken, my name is in question and my honour belittled.
"It does not matter if I go cold or hungry. So long as my sons, my daughters and wife, brothers, sisters and parents, uncles and aunts are in need of my money then I shall not see it. They will have board and bed, myself be damned. Their safety is all that matters, their protection against the world is all my mind concerns itself with right now." I explain, my heart aching for the senator who died because of my mistake. Efforts I once dreamed of putting out to honour his name are now gone, I do not have the time. The grains are slipping away...
"Your family is not in dan-"
"Because of your dramatics, yes, they are. The Burspharosa clan will be ground into the dust now that I am here to be hushed as to not offend Her Gloriousness." I interrupt, battering her with a sneer towards the end. She stares down, sternly, her fingers flexing with ember-driven energy before the glow ceases. She sighs.
"Why... Why did you start all of this...?" she asks, her voice shaking as the memories drown her in bother.
"Your power is unfit to inherit, I did what was right by the law of the land." I explain, returning to my motions and then stopping with the end joint of my index bending under the strain.
"You didn't come to my home that day to accuse my mother of sullying her womb." the Thunderess rightly guesses if that is what she is doing. I nod.
"Yes..." I start to answer, a happier, more peaceable timeline being envisioned in my head, much like it must be with her, "I came to the seat of The Lady Bosphama for you, that much is similar. But, I did so with an appropriately aged son in my grasp, Theomasaga. He's happily wed to another now but I intended him for you. Having heard of your developments from a girl to a woman, I intended to try and merge our families through matrimonial union, your hand in his at the right time where Motrtha guides your touch equally."
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Only that never happened..." she almost growls, her eyes narrowing as her fists curl up again.
"No. I met with your mother, introduced my son properly beyond what he might've done so himself on any play dates or stays. And then, we found you, proud of what you were doing with your magic. We both remember the look your mother had that day, though you've probably forgotten your confusion over it." I finish explaining, moving my head down as her heels click closer. The bars of my prison start to warp and move, remade into a doorless way fit for a king.
She starts to shake her head, her eyes straining.
"Y-You didn't have to tell anyone... You had no right..."
"I had every, which is why I was able to take it from my seat in the Senate and into the ears of my fellows. From fellow bearers of the sash to the honoured men at the back of the room." I explain, rising to meet her advance, my back proud with senatorial honour although I am stripped of its well-being fat. Melted away in the cooking pot of damning black iron.
"I would've made a good wife..." she mutters, the innocence of her old noble life never to come back.
"I am sure you would have, you sailed the All-Coast so dominated by our hated enemy for refuge and safety but instead came right back in relatively good time to bring the greatest thing to our shores since our lands were first raised into the sky. A beautiful girl in her own right came back only fit for the hand of the god which has made her what she is now."
"No god made me." she states, meeting my eyes with unyielding force. I nod and look away, her eyes still boring their way through my back and front. Going to the barred window of my cell, I look outside at the sky. Dark clouds tonight, no strength even with a man-made goddess within the leaping step.
"So, Thunderess. How might I be of service? I doubt you came to me with the intent of asking simple whys, whos and hows." I ask, turning back around and then going back onto my knees. A madman screams within me to run, but, we do not listen to madmen until the world itself turns to Chaos herself, only then do they make sense.
She reaches into her kimono, so simple in its elegance and a sheathed blade comes out. It crashes to the floor and rattles up to the stretched skin of my knees. Grabbing it by either end, I do not reveal the sharpened steel and I look to her. This is the blade of man with only two choices...
"You may either redeem yourself of the shame you have brought to your clan by taking your own life here with me as your witness or you may surrender all lands, wealth and history. You will become simply Laiologos and your family will in turn suffer the same fate. A fitting punishment for what you have done to mine. So the courts tell me..."
I start to shake my head and put the short blade down, but, I stop. Rising back to my feet with it still in hand, I pull it out and read the inscription on the steel the mark of its true nature as an honour-restoring edge. For the first time since I have called cells and dungeons my home, I smile, hopeful of what I can do. The Thunderess steps back, confused and bewildered.
"Men do not usually smile when faced with death or beggardom..." she remarks as if I have gone mad, though, perhaps I have. Maybe I already am, after all, I saw the warning in the painting and I carried on, hopeful to squeeze through the gap of time. I misjudged how wide the eye of the needle is, I suppose.
"To rid my family of shame, I must die by a blade, not this one necessarily. I will not harm my lands by subjecting them to the uncertainty of a ruler and the changes that come with it. Much less my family for the sake of a few more Months of Aahtha or full moons of The Mighty." I explain, cutting open my rags to expose my tired and unrefined chest and belly. Placing the blade at the centre bottom of my ribcage, I carve the mark of shame across my abdomen and let it bleed.
The Thunderess steps back, shaken by the sight despite the journey she has to her name now.
"You seek your end in a Duel of Judgement?" she asks as I click the blade back into its sheath.
"I am, against the man who framed the innocent Senator Caetusi. A man whose name is now going unheard because of what... You. Are." I state, poking her with the hand holding both blade and sheath until her back is against the wall.
"I didn't mean for that to happen... I'm sorry..."
I sigh, putting a hand on her chin and bringing it up, "Don't be. With how you are now, you can bring peace and stability to Eusorochii far more than I ever could. The dreams of Senator Caetusi can live on in you and be more than even he could have hoped for."
"Wh-What did he want?" she asks following after me as I move to leave these dungeons behind so that I might begin a journey of my own. The guards hear footsteps and move to open the door, only to slam it shut and draw their weapons, confusion sprouting across such a grand meadow.
"Thunderess! Are you unharmed!?" one of them demands to know as others call out for ranged weapons capable of killing me. Turning to them, I make sure they can see the bleeding mark I have carved myself.
"I'm fine... I'm fine! Stop whatever this is now!" she snaps to them as I turn my head to face her.
"The good Senator Caetusi wanted it so that no other lands fell into the All-Coast to drown or drift. So that no more were forced to leave their homes and families behind. He wished for the safety of all on the honour of his father and the people who raised him to the Senate." I explain, a chest full of pride as this is now our shared mission. As the one with the power of Loyal Lightning, she cannot let it go to waste as she sits on silk cushions filled with the finest feathers and soft comforts. She must act for the good of the empire and most of all, the blood that courses through its sons and daughters.
Young and old.
"I... I... I can do that. We can do that." she asserts, standing tall as her great power sneaks out for a view. I smile at its narrow head and it slips back into the comforts of this beautiful woman I would've been proud to call my daughter. Even as she was, I would've been proud. When she left home, she would've been so similar a person, the sailing didn't change her, she was always a woman worthy of noble song.
"Do so well and good, for all the land to hear. The people know lightning as power, let them know that Lightning is great and well-meaning. Let them know."
"BAHCK TO YER CELL, DISGRACEFUL THING!" a foul creature in the form of a man spits. Turning my gaze to him, I smirk at one little thing my removal from the Senate has entitled me to.
"It's The Lord Burspharosa!"